Potsdam man sentenced in molestation case

CANTON  A Potsdam man will spend more than a decade in state prison for molesting a teenager two years ago.

Christopher P. McDonald, 41, was sentenced Wednesday to a total of 13 years behind bars and 10 years of post-release supervision by St. Lawrence County Court Judge Jerome J. Richards after previously pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree criminal sex act and one count of third-degree criminal sex act. He also will have to register as a sex offender.

McDonald was indicted in August, initially charged with 12 felonies and two misdemeanors in connection with allegations that he had sex with a 14-year-old during weekends in the summer and fall of 2009 in the town of Hopkinton, and February 2010, March 2011 and April 2011 in the village of Potsdam. An incident last summer involved sex with the victim by forcible compulsion, investigators said.

McDonald initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but later accepted a plea deal.

In other court action Wednesday:

Bradley D. Sharpe,57, Gouverneur, was sentenced to four years in prison after previously pleading guilty to sex-abuse charges. Sharpe was arrested in September following investigation of reports that he twice had sexual contact with a 7-year-old girl.

Codey A. Royce, 23, was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of five years and three years in connection with a July burglary and assault in the town of Fowler. State police said Mr. Royce tendered a check to purchase $100 worth of synthetic marijuana and the drug known as bath salts from the former Uncle Toms Headshop, 1435 County Route 24, but was denied. He later returned to the store, demanded the items and struck an employee with a wooden stick before stealing the items, troopers said.

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